When Lisa Madigan withdrew from the race, my opponent State Sen. Kwame Raoul entered the race. And he immediately dismissed me as a mere Miss America, and said he knew Lisa Madigan did not leave the race because she was afraid of facing me. Well, Lisa Madigan may not have been afraid to face me, but Sen. Raoul apparently is, because he’s been trying to duck debates and avoid joint forums. Our state deserves an attorney general who is tough enough to stand on any stage, with any person, even if that person is just a mere Miss America.
The governor also used his speech to demand that Raoul debate Harold, asking why the Senator was hiding.
* Meanwhile…
Today, Kwame Raoul’s campaign for Attorney General released a new television ad, “Safe Home,” highlighting Republican Erika Harold’s shocking views on the safety of children and same-sex couples who wish to care for them. The ad is running statewide on television and digital platforms.
“As both a father and a public servant, it’s unconscionable to me that the safety of a child would ever be up for debate,” said Kwame Raoul. “When I was a prosecutor, I took children out of abusive homes so that they could live with loving families. Whether from neighborhood violence, online predators or even within their own home, our kids are at risk. As attorney general, I will make our children’s safety my top priority.”
Video transcript:
[GRAPHIC]
You won’t believe what Erika Harold believes.
[REPORTER VOICEOVER]
Republican Erika Harold, views on gay adoption are surfacing.
Harold was asked…‘If you had to place a child in foster care, and the choices were either a loving gay couple or a heterosexual couple who were known child abusers, who would you choose?’
Harold chose the child abusers.
[KWAME RAOUL]
Your personal views influence what you pursue. We can’t allow that type of extremism into the Attorney General’s office. I prosecuted child abuse and neglect.
This is the work of my life, and I’m just getting started.
Harold has repeatedly supported policies that discriminate against LGBTQ individuals. During her 2014 congressional campaign, Harold supported a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and protection for employers who fire employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Kwame Raoul is endorsed by a host of organizations whose members are deeply committed to the safety and welfare of children, including the National Association of Social Workers, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Education Association, Illinois Nurses Association, and more.
* I have to head to the fairgrounds. I’ll be bringing my laptop with me, but I just don’t know how much I’ll be posting today. In the meantime, keep an eye on the live coverage post for constant updates (click here).
Please, be nice to each other in comments, and try your very best to keep the discussion Illinois-centric. Thanks.
This [JB Pritzker] is the guy who tried to buy his office. He tried to get into the game, he was sucking up to Blagojevich. Now he’s sucking up to Mike Madigan.
What’s one of the great things about being a billionaire? You don’t have to suck up to anybody. Right? I mean, that’s Donald Trump. The great thing about being a billionaire is you don’t have to suck up.
This guy is a billionaire ass-kisser. He is a billionaire ass-kisser. That’s who he is.
He kissed Blagojevich’s ass. Now he’s kissing Mike Madigan’s ass. We can’t lose to this guy. Right? He’s a tax cheat. He’s a suck-up. And what’s he want to do? He wants to raise your taxes and hand the government over to Mike Madigan.
He also said Pritzker is “making the Bahamas great again,” because the Democrat has almost all of his money there and he’s using some of it to build a $100 million house. It was quite the barn-burner. “He wants to raise your taxes and he’s hiding his income in South Dakota and the Bahamas” where they have no income tax, Porter said. His conclusion…
Please pardon my language. I got a little worked up. But, I don’t know about you guys, I’m going to do whatever I can, I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure we win this race. I’m gonna make sure that a normal guy is going to be in the mansion, the guy that actually pays his taxes and reports his taxes. He pays his taxes to help fund things in Illinois. He gives away money in Illinois to try to build schools and to make life in Illinois better. He’s not making life better in Nassau in the Bahamas.
Asked if the name picked for the Coliseum would be permanent or only last for a set time period, Elizabeth Tomev, spokeswoman for the governor, said “The details of the program will be announced soon.”
Past discussions about naming rights have included the idea that they could be purchased for a period of years. Slayton said in 2017 that preliminary discussions at the time for naming rights for the Coliseum, Grandstand and Exposition Building were in the range of $200,000 to $250,000 a year for five years.
Slayton said Tuesday that there had been discussions with an agriculture association to get to name the building for $1 million for five years, and the offer was sweetened to $1 million for 10 years, but it was passed over.
As for how long the naming rights purchased by the Rauners will last, Slayton said that will be up to the foundation board, which will meet after the State Fair. It would also be up to the board if the name would last forever. He noted the possibility that the name will come from an Illinois school child.
AFUCIO? I won’t even try to guess the hidden meaning of that typo, especially considering the governor’s antipathy toward organized labor (and please don’t “go there” in comments, either).
But, hey, at least they spelled “pavilion” right.
Also, if you look at the map, the Secretary of State’s tent is listed, but the location is not marked on the map itself.
The context was his admission that JB Pritzker is outspending him three-to-one on TV ads, but that it won’t do Pritzker much good because he’s not an attractive candidate. “Once you’ve spent that for saturation, the rest of it’s wasted,” Rauner told the gathered Republicans. “We just gotta make sure we’ve got enough to get our message out.”
A Williamson County commissioner says the push for a gun control advisory question on November’s ballot has nothing to do with letting the voters speak and everything to do with heavy-handed Springfield politics.
Commissioner Ron Ellis said when the Williamson County Board first started talking in June about letting the voters decide if the board should oppose specific gun control bills that were being debated in Springfield, he was all for it. In fact, the three-person board voted unanimously to put the question on the ballot, they just had to finalize the language. […]
Ellis said that board meeting put the political machine in top gear, and the pressure was on him particularly. He said he got a call from Joe Hackler, the Southern Illinois director for Citizens for Rauner Inc., about his support of the measure.
“I was literally told that if I didn’t put this on the ballot that there would be repercussions,” Ellis said. He said he later heard from a local Republican official that if he wasn’t careful, it was possible there could be a smear campaign launched against him for standing up to Springfield, making his political life very difficult in the future.
“I was told later … that they would put press releases out against me, make me out to be anti gun, that I was NOT a true Republican and make sure that someone ran against me in the primary in two years,” Ellis said in a text message to The Southern on Monday.
Ahead of Governor Rauner’s speech at the State Fair for Governor’s Day, the Rauner campaign is launching a new paid digital ad.
The ad echoes the themes that Governor Rauner will touch on during his remarks: taking on corruption and fighting for the future of our state.
Governor Rauner has fought since day one to end decades of insider politics, grow the economy, and make Illinois the best state in America to build a business and raise a family.
They said it couldn’t be done. The Madigan Machine is just too strong, they say. It will never go away. Never fail to fail us. In spite of the odds, millions of us believe in the future our kids deserve and the possibilities of this great place we still call home. Now, we have a choice. We could leave our future to the same corrupt career politicians, or we can fight. I choose to fight.
* More to come in a bit. Official explanation is an illness.
…Adding… Press release..
The following statement has been released by Doug House, President of the Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association:
“Everyone who knows Vice President Biden knows that he gives our party and our country his all, but unfortunately he is sick and is under doctor’s orders not to travel.
The cancellation is of course disappointing, but it is clear that the circumstances are simply unavoidable. We all hope he gets well soon and I’m sure he’ll be back campaigning for Democrats in Illinois and across the country in no time.
While Biden’s trip to Springfield is cancelled, our event will continue. We remain excited for what will be the largest brunch in our history and look forward to hearing from our incredible slate of Democratic leaders who are ready to energize our party and lead us to victory up and down the ticket this November.”
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
Mayor dubbed by Obama as ‘Future of Democratic Party’ will headline IDCCA brunch in light of Biden cancelation
SPRINGFIELD, Illinois – Thousands of excited Democrats attending the IDCCA’s largest-ever annual brunch on Thursday will meet rising star South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg (boot-edge-edge) who replaces Vice President Joe Biden after an unavoidable, late cancelation due to illness.
“Mayor Pete Buttigieg is a shining example of what can happen when Democrats take their message to every community,” said Doug House, president of the IDCCA. “That’s IDCCA’s primary mission – to fight and win in places where we’ve been told we can’t succeed. Mayor Pete’s dynamic message is one Illinois needs to hear as we work to turn races up and down the ticket from red to blue.”
“South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is a rising star in the Democratic Party who jumped at the chance of filling in for Joe Biden,” U.S. Senator Dick Durbin said. “We welcome our Hoosier Democratic friend to Springfield.”
About Mayor Pete Buttigieg
Buttigieg - a Harvard graduate, Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Navy Reserve Lieutenant – was first elected mayor of South Bend in 2011 at only 29 years old, and in 2015 he won re-election with 80 percent of the vote. Known fondly as ‘Mayor Pete,’ in Buttigieg’s seven years as mayor, South Bend went from being called one of America’s 10 dying communities by Newsweek to experiencing a period of rapid population and investment growth.
As Mayor, Buttigieg took an unpaid seven-month leave for a deployment to Afghanistan. For his counterterrorism work, he earned the Joint Service Commendation Medal.
President Barack Obama named him one of four Democrats who represented the future of the Democratic Party. He’s received national hype in The Washington Post, which called him “the most interesting Mayor you’ve never heard of,” and in The New York Times, which ran a column saying that he could be the nation’s “first gay President.”
In 2017, Buttigieg ran for Democratic National Committee chair, earning national praise for his clear message and emphasis on rebuilding the Democratic Party from the ground up in every community. House said that message will play well Thursday.
Mayor Pete studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Oxford and holds a bachelor’s degree in History and Literature from Harvard. The son of educators, he was born in South Bend and grew up in the Northwest Side and North Shore Triangle. He graduated from St. Joseph High School in South Bend.
An active musician, Mayor Pete plays piano and guitar, and has performed with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra. He lives with his husband Chasten in the same South Bend neighborhood where he grew up and is restoring a once-vacant home there.
He currently serves on the advisory board of the United States Conference of Mayors, and is chair of the Mayors’ Task Force on Automation, which addresses the impact of automation on American communities.
